Abstract Expressionist Painting Artist Signed Mid-century Modern Eames Era NoRes

Description: Item: Gouache painting on paper, mounted floated on black matting board backer (paper is tacked / glued at corners), unframed, signed illegibly but possibly “Lambert” or “Laurent” and dated “77”. It’s a great Abstract Expressionist piece with vigorous painting technique, thicker than a watercolor but thinner than some oils. I love the color scheme, a play of reds, pinks and purples against black, gray and white. The painted border reminds me of watercolors by John Marin, although he was more of an early Modernist and this is painting is in the Mid-century Modern mode. PLEASE SEE MY OTHER eBAY LISTINGS FOR A NICE SELCTION OF ART, ANTIQUES AND COLLECTIBLES !! Size: approx. 16 x 20 inches overall with black backer board. White paper size: approx. 10 1/4 x 13 1/4 inches. Painted image size: approx. 6 3/4 x 10 3/8 inches. About Abstract Expressionism (from the net) Abstract Expressionism was a movement initiated by a group of loosely affiliated artists that came together during the early 1940s, primarily in New York City. Artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Lee Krasner, among others, pursued radically new forms to express a deep sense of meaning through their painting. Flourishing during the 1940s and the 1950s, Abstract Expressionism gained recognition as the first specifically American movement to achieve an international reputation. Increased interest in abstract expressionist artists placed New York at the center of the art world, a position previously reserved for Paris. Since most first-generation abstract expressionists lived in New York City, the movement was also known as ‘‘The New York School.’’ While the critics Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg preferred the names ‘‘action painting,’’ ‘‘American-type Painting,’’ and ‘‘painterly abstraction,’’ the term ‘‘abstract expressionism’’ emerged in Germany in 1919 in reference to German Expressionism. Alfred Barr used it for the first time in the United States in 1929 to describe the paintings of Vasily Kandinsky. In 1946, Robert Coates adopted the term to designate contemporary American painting, describing Hans Hofmann as representative ‘‘of what some people call the spatter-and-daub school of painting and I [Coates]…have christened abstract expressionism.’’ The phrase served to unite the two dominant aspects of abstract expressionist art: a non-figurative commitment that reduced representational objects to basic geometric forms (abstraction) and the improvisational brushstrokes expressing emotion or conceptual states (expressionism). Despite the fact that most abstract expressionists rejected labels, the term endured. Never a formal affiliation, Abstract Expressionism encompasses a variety of styles and represents an artistic attitude rather than a single form of expression. What unites the distinct personalities within the movement is their rejection of overt political messages, a desire to express emotional and spiritual truths, and a search for universal or morally significant themes often implemented on a grand scale. Not all works were abstract and emotionally expressive; however, all abstract expressionists valued what was termed ‘‘authentic individuality’’ and improvisation. Emblematic of their approach are the incorporation of chance and accidents that occur during the painting process, a tendency towards ‘‘all-over’’ compositions in which all parts of the canvas are of equal value, an emphasis on the process or act of painting used as a means of communication, and a focus on the surface of the canvas where loose strokes, gestural marks, or planes of color convey expression. A commitment to truthfulness, emotion, and profound themes unites diverse artistic approaches ranging from the calligraphic, poured and dripped paintings of Jackson Pollock to the soft-edged and meditative rectangles of Mark Rothko. Based on trends within the movement, Abstract Expressionism came to be divided into two groups: gestural (action) painting and color field painting. Gestural painting includes techniques that use pronounced, often energetic, brushstrokes as a way of expression, such as pouring and dripping thinned paint onto a raw canvas laid on the ground (Pollock) or dynamic gestures articulating powerful iconic figures and abstract imagery (De Kooning, Franz Kline, and Lee Krasner). Color field painting emphasizes the lyrical effects and expressive capacities of Color—often poured or stained directly onto the canvas—to convey a vision of the ‘‘sublime’’ or achieve a cerebral and reflective state of mind. The latter group encompasses methods such as the quiescent, intensely coloured landscape-like fields of Mark Rothko or the vast areas of unmodulated, flat, and stained colour of Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, and Clyfford Still.Most abstract expressionists began working in the 1930s, so the Great Depression and its aftermath are paramount to understanding their artistic choices. Many met through government relief programs such as the depression-era WPA (Works Progress Administration), which employed artists to paint murals in public spaces. Although the experience encouraged future abstract expressionists to paint on a large scale, artists abandoned the popular movements of the time—regionalism and socialist realism—and their corresponding ideologies (nationalism and socialism) in search of universal art free of totalitarian gist, overt politics, and provincialism. In the eyes of post-war and Cold War audiences, Abstract Expressionism voiced the inner turmoil and dark mood of the time and embodied the American spirit—monumental, romantic, and symbolic of individual freedom. At the same time, the artists developed a sense of community—redolent of a common philosophy and call to social responsibility—as they frequented various locales in New York City to engage each other’s work and discuss topics such as existentialism, ‘‘gestalt therapy,’’ and Zen Buddhism. Among various post-war factors, it was the vibrant New York art scene and the assimilation of European modernism that set the stage for Abstract Expressionism’s break from traditional painting. American artists encountered manifestations of European modernism, particularly Surrealism, Cubism, Dada, and Geometric Abstraction in the galleries of an expanding network of museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and newly established galleries, such as Peggy Guggenheim’s The Art of this Century gallery. The abstract expressionists’ primary source of inspiration, however, came with the influx of expatriate artists including Marcel Duchamp, André Masson, and Piet Mondrian who crossed the ocean to escape Hitler-dominated Europe. Abstract Expressionism benefited particularly from direct contact with Surrealism (Max Ernst), De Stijl (Mondrian), and artistic philosophies concerned with the physicality of paint and the possibilities of abstraction (Hans Hofmann and Arshile Gorky). Surrealism impacted Abstract Expressionism with its interest in the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, as well as its incorporation of chance, improvisation, and use of automatism to tap into one’s subconscious. In addition to the above-mentioned male artists, Abstract Expressionism included notable women such as Lee Krasner, Hedda Sterne, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, and Louise Bourgeois.

Price: 125 USD

Location: Pitman, New Jersey

End Time: 2024-05-03T22:29:43.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD